Students and staff in line at the CPS Café. Many enjoy the natural and organic selection.
CPS Café: Best campus dining
The Pointer
kbose675@uwsp.edu
At the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where eating naturally and organically is a top priority for both students and staff, the CPS Café offers a wide array of healthy foods to suit any appetite. Nestled on the first floor of the College of Professional Studies, the café was established in 1971, to give the nutrition management students an opportunity for hands-on experience.
Compared to other student dining locations, the café uses local, seasonal and organic ingredients and free-range meat whenever available. Their environmentally safe practices go far beyond the actual meals. The café uses green, sustainable practices and strives to eliminate food waste. They also cook with minimally processed or unprocessed ingredients.
Kim Beckham, café manager, said, “Our coffees are fair trade and organic and roasted nearby in Wisconsin Rapids. The menu is filled with interesting and exciting dishes from a broad repertoire and includes world and regional flavors.”
Walk into the café during the lunch hour and you will see masses of students and faculty alike dining on foods such as chicken pasta gratin or wild mushroom soup. It’s often difficult to even find an open seat during busy times, but since students and faculty helped to select the recipes for the menu, it’s easy to see why the café is such a popular place for on-campus dining. With at least two soups and two sandwiches priced under $3.50 every day, students flock here for a healthy, hearty and inexpensive meal.
This past year has brought many changes to the café. The bakery offering in the morning now includes breakfast cookies and boiled eggs. Also, an espresso machine and fresh coffee bean grinder were just added last semester.
“The café is selling cappuccinos and other coffee drinks flavored with organic Monin syrups and fresh-whipped organic cream,” said Beckham. “Fresh from scratch breads are also new for the café.”
Other menu additions include burrito Tuesdays, pressed sandwiches on Wednesdays and Thursdays and a third soup choice on Fridays. For those who can’t go without listening to their favorite songs, an MP3 and iPod docking station was just added so you can listen to your own or the café’s music in the dining room.
“More changes in the dining room are coming,” said Beckham. “A cashier kiosk is planned to accommodate the increasing number of diners and an expanded carry-out program is in the works, too.”
The café’s Web site, www.uwsp.edu/hphd/sites/Cafe/cpsCafe.html, updates their menu weekly to keep everyone informed on the latest dining options. Whether you strive to live naturally and eat organically, or if you just enjoy the taste of some of these truly unique dining options, stop by the CPS Café, voted best on-campus dining!
